It is known to use vision systems based on cameras in medical practice, under the form of both cameras adapted to endoscopes and cameras specifically designed for the vision of specific areas of interest, e.g. intraoral cameras, colposcopes, or various kind of endoscopes, even for surgical use.
Historically, cameras utilized in medical practice used to comprise an optical system, often of elongated form; a device for capturing images, typically a CCD or CMOS sensor; and electronic circuits for acquiring and processing images in the form of video signals, suitable for connecting to a video screen or to a personal computer for saving the video sequence or single frames. Such cameras traditionally needed to be connected to a cable for carrying a power supply to the camera and video signals to a display screen for viewing images.
Also known are cameras used in medical practice, which are provided with a lighting system using lamps or Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), emitting both white light for normal vision, and specific wavelengths, e.g. infrared or ultraviolet. The different wavelengths have the aim of facilitating diagnosis of particular pathologies, like mycosis in the case of cameras designed for dermatology, or the presence of plaque, caries or pathogens in the case of intraoral cameras, or cancerous or pre-cancerous lesions in the case of colposcopes and endoscopes.
Cameras used in medical practice can optionally be provided with a focusing system, for a better vision of objects lying at different distances; otherwise, cameras can be pre-set in an optimal focusing condition based on the use for which they are designed.
Therefore, medical cameras of different types are known, but until today many of the products available on the market have poor or no use flexibility. In particular, when conditions requiring the variation of the working mode of the camera arise, the use of the same camera during clinical use can be impossible or very uncomfortable for the operator.
For instance, when an operator is working with white light for vision in the visible spectrum, the need may arise to illuminate an anatomic portion with a light having a different specific wavelength, useful to detect specific pathologies.
Otherwise, in some cases there are vision difficulties, due to a pre-set focus that does not correspond to the needs of a specific clinical practice.
Document US2011/0134234 discloses an electronic microscope, which includes a handle having an outer body enclosing a main body, and an image sensor such as a CMOS or CCD sensor, in which an image memory, a tact switch, and a USB port are mounted on the main board. A lens controller is fixed to the front end of the outer body of the handle and includes an inner case having a guide slot in the circumference and a flange on one end to which the handle is coupled. An outer case is rotatably coupled with the inner case from outside and has a spiral passage, such as a spiral hole or a spiral groove, in the circumference communicating with the guide slot. A lens unit is inserted into the inner case and has a guide rod inserted into the guide slot and into the spiral passage such that the lens unit moves back and forth in response to rotation of the outer case. A light guide coupled to the front end of the lens controller includes a LED board with a LED radially mounted on the LED board, and an observation filter detachably provided on the front end of the lens controller, in which the observation filter has a conical shape with the diameter decreasing toward the front end thereof, and observes body regions including the skin, scalp, nose, mouth, ears, and acupuncture spots in the ears. The lens controller includes a main case covering the outer circumference of the outer case and a focus adjustor provided on one end of the outer case, in which the focus adjustor rotates the outer case from outside, so that the lens unit can be precisely adjusted.
This device allows a continuous adjustment of the focus of the lens unit by rotating a focus adjustment member in the form of a ring. This device has a very complex construction, which renders it non suitable for endocavitary use, due to difficulties in substituting and/or sterilizing the parts that come into contact with the anatomical cavities of different patients.
Moreover, that continuous adjustment renders the device difficult to use because it requires several adjustments before reaching the right focus for a specific operative condition, and the user needs to operate the adjustments of the focus with both hands. Thus focus adjustment requires several actions of inserting the device in the cavity, controlling the image focus on the display, and if not correct, extracting the device from the cavity, making a first adjustment and then reintroducing the device in the cavity and controlling the new focus. If the adjustment is not sufficient for a desired image quality, the above steps must be repeated until the image desired image quality has been achieved.
Furthermore, if changes in the type of illumination and or in the settings of the CCD or CMOS parameters and/or of the processing unit generating the image or video data from the received signals must be performed, this must be done by physically changing the illumination source or by adding filters and by inputting new operative parameters and settings for the processing unit through control interfaces.